The trials. The tribulations. The blood, sweat and beers of fiction writing

Tuesday, 10 August 2010

ODE TO PROVENCE

Lazing beneath olive trees to the febrile clack of cicadas, the warm mistral whipping overhead, then slipping into the pool, its turquoise water, limpid, cooling, keeping a white, corrosive sun at bay a while, then seeking shade to read, each sentence a soporific effort as the wine, heady and spicy, has its say, and

later, watching the moon rise, its quiet majesty lanced by a lone cloud, the cicadas piped down, allowing the tick tick of crickets to flourish, and by the walled garden a hawk moth flits above the nectar, its long proboscis silently at work, and

then later, making love to the scritch of the crickets’ lament, the night balmy, cloying, before waking to the distant church bell, faint on the breeze, fading to nothing, and heading to the pool, watching the robot that cleans traverse the bottom, silent, comically malevolent, and

now the clouds bank up from the west, a storm perhaps, but they clear to a perfect, cerulean sky, and so shade is sought for Scrabble and more wine, while guitar notes are plucked and bent, and

it’s evening again, supine on the grass, guessing at constellations, a million stars, Venus, solemn to the west, Hendrix riffs drifting out from the gîte, and we play boules under moonlight, under the influence, and

the next day, heads tender, exploring medieval towns, their narrow, cobbled streets winding endlessly upwards to the reward of cold beer, and off to a vineyard, our attempts at discourse clumsy, before driving up into the hills, the road serpentine, apparently maintained, cutting through the sea of verdant vines, and

Sounds like you had an idyllic holiday (after I checked the online dictionary for the 4 words I didn't understand!) I wonder if I could write an ode to north wales after I get back from my camping weekend with 9 kids. May be slightly less romantic:)

About

An award-winning writer living in south-west England, my short story collection, The Method, won the inaugural Scott Prize in 2010 and, in 2011, the Edge Hill Readers' Prize. Debut novel, What Lies Within, published by Headline. That Dark Remembered Day due in 2014. Lectures in Creative Writing and represented by Ed Victor. More here.

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REVIEWS OF MY WRITING

'As unsettling as it is minutely imagined, this striking debut novel will give serious pause for thought to anyone considering downsizing for a cosy life in the countryside.'Patrick Gale

'Taut and compelling, you won't just read this book, you'll devour it.'Alex Preston

'Much more than crime fiction, 'What Lies Within' is unique not just for its sharp psychological insights, but for the moral engine that drives the plot: a deep respect for, and anger on behalf of, women.'Melissa Harrison'A finely achieved work, provocative and brave.'Graham Mort'A powerful and unsettling book.'Jen Campbell

‘Gothic wit and cracking dialogue grounded in the author's genuine sympathy for his characters. A seriously gifted debut.'Mike McCormack

‘Talent is here.’Gerard Donovan

‘These stories are sensational. Beautifully written, impeccably timed. Vowler’s characters live with heightened sensitivity, as if in the wake of some disaster. Then you realise that they are, but then that we all are. Where an object, a gesture, a memory, takes on painful, beautiful resonance, as it should be, all the time.’Luke Kennard

'The Method is stunning. Writing doesn't get better.'Nicola Morgan

‘Vowler's characters hurtle merrily towards self-annihilation so that we don't have to. The kind of book you read in tongue-sticking-out tension, your patience rewarded as he takes turn after salacious turn.’Wena Poon

‘You explore a difficult subject with considerable imagination. From the opening quotes it is intriguing and you have been clever in capturing and retaining the reader’s attention.’Michael Barnard

'Emotionally powerful.'Susie Maguire

'I admired the sheer style of the writing, as well as the wryness and authority of the narrative voice. I kept reading out of admiration for the prose.'Will Atkins

'Some of the best comic writing I've read.'Patrick Holland

'A writer of extraordinary talent and perception.'Jane Smith

‘Vowler is not afraid to be new, to be dangerous with it and flaunt his talent. Composed beautifully and saturated with insight and compassion.’The Short Review

Sagacity

Write a little each day, without hope and without despair.

'The first draft of anything is shit.' Hemingway

'Writing a book is like a long bout of painful illness. One would never undertake such a thing if not driven by some demon.' Orwell

'The novelist’s job is to say what other people won’t say, and take the consequences.' Gerard Donovan

Thinking about writing is not writing. Talking about writing is not writing. Blogging about writing is not writing. Only writing is writing.